The County Court has released a new Commercial Division Omnibus Practice Note PNCO 2-2022 with updated practices and case management expectations for commercial division proceedings.

It applies from 1 August 2022.

The top 14 things you need to know:

Listing of trials: Trials under 10 days will be listed within 8 months of the first admin mention. Anything over that will usually be within 12 months.
Electronic filing and court books are the default, as they have been for some time: See G.1 and G.2. Court book requirements are at section O.
E-trials and E-hearings: the commercial division is keeping an open mind to the benefits of these, especially for interlocutory applications. Covid has shown us there are advantages we ought not give up. E-trials or hybrid trials may be available where appropriate: section R.
Standard orders: a new standard orders booklet is available here. The focus is now on ‘replaceable orders’. A standard replaceable order should suffice, and departures from the standard orders must be explained. The practice note refers extensively to replaceable orders throughout. There is an expectation these will be used.
Judicial Registrars: a complete list of what matters JR’s hear and determine is in the practice note: section C.3. The list is very handy given the large amount of work done by JR’s.
Communication with the court: The PN contains a clear set of guidelines and protocols for how and when to communicate with a judicial officer, and when to include the other side: section F.1.
Exhibits to affidavits: An excellent development: exhibits can now be put in one bundle (numbered) and filed with the affidavit. This is consistent with the Supreme Court: section G.2.
Interrogatories: Use of these has been on the rise in commercial matters, especially where requests for discovery around material facts (as opposed to further and better particulars) will assist in getting to the bottom of a case. They are allowed by consent or with leave of the court: section G.11.
Witness outlines: The default is a 3-page witness outline of evidence, instead of a witness statement. This is a net positive. It solves the problem of not knowing what the evidence of a witness will be, without the counter-problem of lengthy and over-engineered witness statements. Witness outlines do the job where credibility is in contest, so that the witness still gives most of their evidence from the witness box: section G.12.
Joint experts: The practice note default is the appointment of one joint expert, depending on the complexity of the case: section G.13. A Court direction is now necessary if a party intends to adduce expert evidence at trial. The Court foresees a greater cost for engaging one expert, but a lower shared cost for expert evidence between the parties. It will be interesting to see how this disruption to the standard practice of ‘one expert each’ works in practice.
Subpoenas: There’s a very good guide to the types of subpoenas and how to issue including a handy ‘subpoena calculator’ to determine the last date for service and production here: section G14.
Appropriate dispute resolution. Section (H) provides clear, although not new, guidelines for resolution options including private mediation, judicial resolution conferences (run by a judge or judicial registrar), mediations run by a commercial division lawyer (interlocutory disputes and lower-value claims), and early-neutral evaluations or “ENE” (‘case appraisals’). Whether ENE’s will finally take-off remains to be seen.
Calculating costs: The old County Court scale of costs is gone. Costs are now fixed at 80% of the Supreme Court Costs Scale: section L.1.7.
Specialist lists (arbitration, banking & finance, building cases, complex cases) have special practices: click here.

A lot of work has gone into this practice note. It answers a lot of common questions about process and procedure. There are lots of useful sections on common applications and issues.

Have a read, bookmark it, and save a copy for ready reference.